Ecuador election: Analysts debate why neoliberal banker won
By Michael Otto posted on May 4, 2021
Ibarra, Ecuador
April 30 In the wake of the April 11 second round of the presidential election won by right-wing banker Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador has been torn by cleavages and violence from organized crime, whose roots are in the extreme poverty, rampant inequalities and elimination of the social welfare programs introduced by the 2007-17 government of Rafael Correa.
Workers, Indigenous people led a general strike in Ecuador in October 2019 against austerity measures.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a continuing nightmare, with hundreds of people on wait lists for a hospital bed. Here in the northern Andean city of Ibarra, more and more people are begging in the streets.
U.S. role in Ecuador prison uprisings
By Mirinda Crissman posted on April 23, 2021
“In places where inequality is the deepest, the use of prison and punishment is the greatest.” (Ruth Wilson Gilmore) Prisons do not keep people safe from violence; in fact, these institutions perpetuate violence themselves and further entrench poverty. They are tools used by those who hoard mass amounts of wealth to undercut wages and pit workers against one another.
Tear gas rises from parts of Turi jail where a rebellion broke out in Cuenca, Ecuador, Feb. 23.
Once people are labeled “criminal,” “thug” or perhaps even a “gang member,” empathy often goes out the window, despite the fact that those labels were designed to sow difference and isolate members of the working class from one another and from their common enemy.
Heavy Lies the Crown: The Survival of Arab Monarchies, 10 Years After the Arab Spring
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Order from Chaos
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Ten years ago, the Arab uprisings unseated four “presidents for life” in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. The Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) eight monarchs were spared, although many of their countries experienced moderate or significant unrest, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, and Morocco. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar faced the least contestation of the monarchies.
Since then, scholars have asked what it means that no monarch was overthrown and whether Arab monarchy matters to the outcome of regime survival. Various experts have linked the latter to monarchs’ legitimacy, external support, and resource wealth. Though there is no consensus, it is clear that monarchs have repeatedly and successfully contained different types of opposition threats for decades prior to the Ar
The Foreign Roots of Haiti’s “Constitutional Crisis” Haiti’s president’s term has come to an end, but he refuses to step down. Solidarity is urgent. February 6, 2021
By Mark Schuller
February 09, 2021
Information Clearing House - As per usual, news on Haiti in the United States remains limited, except for during periods of “crisis.” As if on cue, U.S. media began reporting on Haiti’s “constitutional crisis” this week.
Sunday, February 7 is the end of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s term, according to the constitution. He refuses to step down. This week, the opposition called for a two-day
As per usual, news on Haiti in the United States remains limited, except for during periods of “crisis.” As if on cue, U.S. media began reporting on Haiti’s “constitutional crisis” this week.
Sunday, February 7 is the end of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse’s term, according to the constitution. He refuses to step down. This week, the opposition called for a two-day general strike, uniting around a transition with the head of Haiti’s Supreme Court stepping in.
Most reporting failed to note the international role, and particularly that of the United States, in creating this “crisis.” And nearly all focused only on one segment of the opposition: leaders of Haiti’s political parties.